April 2, 2019 

How many people out there have the final four teams left in your brackets? Although I have no real rooting interest and there is no Cinderella team, I have been glued to my TV. These games have had drama and excitement galore.

The lowest seed left is Auburn. In their opening-round game, the Tigers were ahead of the New Mexico State Aggies by two points. The Tigers committed a three-shot foul with seconds remaining. The Aggies shooter missed two out of three and Auburn escaped with a one point victory. Auburn went on to beat perennial power Kansas and pulled the upset of the tournament by annihilating the No. 1-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels by 17 points. The next big win was over the No. 2 seed, Kentucky. Auburn prevailed, thoroughly outplaying the Wildcats in overtime.

I had not seen or heard of No. 3 seed Texas Tech Red Raiders until this tourney. They remind me of the Chicago Bears. The offense is nothing special but the defense is outstanding. They cruised through the first three rounds. In the Sweet Sixteen, their opponent, No. 2 seed Michigan, was limited to 44 points.  The Red Raiders then upset high-scoring No. 1 seed Gonzaga, holding the Zags to 69 points.

The Virginia Cavaliers, the only top seed left, had an easy time reaching the round of 16. They ran into trouble against a streaking 12-seed Oregon.  After many lead changes and ties, the Cavs eked out a 53-49 victory. The next game against Purdue was special. Both teams were running on all cylinders. Purdue thought it had won the game. With 5.8 seconds left, the Boilermakers were ahead by 3 points with Virginia at the foul line shooting two free throws. Cavaliers guard Ty Jerome, made the first and purposely missed the second. The Cavs, got the rebound in their backcourt and passed the ball up-court to a wide open Mamadi Diakite. He hit the short jump shot forcing overtime. Both teams deserved to win. Virginia was a little better in OT, winning 80-75.

I thought the best team in the tournament was the top-seeded Duke Blue Devils. The Michigan State Spartans, a No. 2 seed, crushed their competition on their way to the Elite Eight. Meanwhile, Duke twice was almost upset early. They beat the ninth-seeded UCF Knights and the fourth-seeded Virginia Tech Hokies by only two points. Both UCF and Virginia Tech had a chance to win but missed last-second shots. This set up an epic battle between two powerhouse programs. This game was tight, with each making clutch shots. With 5.8 seconds left, the Blue Devils were at the foul line trailing by two points. The problem for Duke was that the player fouled, R.J. Barrett was only averaging 66 percent on free throws. After missing his first free throw, he tried to miss the next hoping Duke would get the rebound. Unlike Virginia, the second shot went in. The Spartans won, 68-67.

I have no clue as to who is going to be crowned National Champion. I am just hoping it will turn out to as exciting as it has been up until now.

What I took away from this tournament is that if the Bulls get lucky and add either Duke’s Zion Williamson or Ja Morant of Murray State, they will be instant contenders. However, chances are those two won’t be available when it comes to the Bulls’ turn in the draft.